In this era of globalization, our ability to learn and function as part of diverse groups is essential to our capacity to survive and thrive. Yet almost all assessment and most aspects of instruction in schools still focus on promoting individual performance and achievement. In this course, you will investigate the power of the group as a learning environment, and documentation as a way to shape, extend, and make visible how and what we learn.

The work of the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, has drawn international attention to children’s capacities as individual and group learners. Based on a collaboration between Project Zero at Harvard, Reggio educators, and over 100 U.S. educators, the Making Learning Visible (MLV) framework extends key ingredients of the Reggio approach to primary and secondary schools and learners of all ages. Documenting children’s and adults’ learning challenges our assumptions about children’s capabilities and what thinking and learning look like.

In this course, you will examine rich examples of individual and group learning in a variety of classrooms. Aided by extensive online and text-based resources, you will learn what the MLV framework is, why and when it is useful, and how to apply it in your own setting to benefit students, teachers, and your school community as a whole.

Visible Learners

A progressive, research-based approach for making learning visible

Based on the Reggio Emilia approach to learning, Visible Learnershighlights learning through interpreting objects and artifacts, group learning, and documentation to make students' learning evident to teachers. Visible classrooms are committed to five key principles: that learning is purposeful, social, emotional, empowering, and representational. The book includes visual essays, key practices, classroom and examples.

Show how to make learning happen in relation to others, spark emotional connections, give students power over their learning, and express ideas in multiple ways

Offer a new way to enhance learning using progressive, research-based practices for increasing collaboration and critical thinking in and outside the classroom

Visible Learners asks that teachers look beyond surface-level to understand who students are, what they come to know, and how they come to know it.

Welcome to the Making
Learning Visible Resources Weebly! This site provides resources and tools to
support learning in groups in the classroom and the staffroom. Most of the tools you will find here are intended for teachers, professional development designers and coaches, and administrators, though some are also designed to help families support student learning. Many also include ways to involve students more directly in teaching and learning decisions. Almost all of the tools emphasize greater intentionality combined with careful looking and listening. Making
learning visible is not a recipe; it will take time to discover and adapt the
tools and resources for your own setting. We hope you will find this site useful and enjoy exploring it. The
site includes five kinds of tools and resources:1.Supporting
Learning in Groups in the Classroom2.Supporting Learning in Groups in the Staffroom3.Documenting Individual and Group Learning4.Engaging Families in Supporting Student Learning5.Making Learning Visible Beyond the ClassroomSupporting Learning in Groups in the Classroom
includes practical tools with suggestions for creating learning groups at the
beginning of the school year, forming study groups in classrooms, and promoting
a culture of dialogue. provides tools for forming adult study groups, hands-on activities for adults to explore learning groups and documentation for themselves, and conversation structures for discussing and reflecting on student learning.Supporting Learning in Groups in the Staffroom provides tools for forming adult study groups, hands-on activities for adults to explore learning groups and documentation for themselves, and conversation structures for discussing and reflecting on student learning.

Documenting
Individual and Group Learning includes resources for
understanding, creating, and sharing documentation with students and
colleagues. Some tools will help you think through the purpose of your
documentation; others provide guidelines for gathering or sharing documentation
via video, computer, photographs, or powerpoint.Engaging Families in Supporting Student Learning offers resources to inform families about visible
learning, involve families in supporting their children’s learning, and
communicate with families about learning. Tools range from a refrigerator
reminder to guidelines for parents interested in forming their own study group.Making Learning Visible beyond the Classroom provides tools and templates for creating bulletin
boards, documentation panels, visual essays, and schoolwide exhibitions that
make learning and learners visible, with examples from preschool-high school.